Solstice

'You have to tell me everything. Every single little detail.' It was six in the morning, and the sun was already warm on the little cottage. Thrusting down my overwhelming, aching fear, I concentrated on my daughter's delicately-flushed face. She held up her left hand for my inspection: the ring looked perfect, as I knew it would. 'It's so beautiful, isn't it? The level of detail on it, the craftsmanship...' I gave her a sly glance. 'He showed it to me yesterday afternoon, before he proposed,' I told her, and watched her face fall.

'But I wanted to show you myself.' Ness pouted. She turned her hand this way and that, watching as the tanzanite turned from blue, to purple, and blue again. 'Well, he unfolded a picnic blanket in that little glade we love – you know, the perfectly round one – under the trees, and set out the most amazing picnic. Smoked salmon, asparagus, champagne, the whole works. He told me Dad had help him cook – thanks, Dad,' she grinned, and Edward beamed at her. Like me, he was sitting on the edge of his seat. 'Then, very simply, he said: 'you are my life now, and always will be. Will you do me the honour – the incredible, incredible honour – of staying with me for eternity?' He went down on one knee and showed me the ring, and for a while I couldn't speak at all. I wanted to laugh and cry and shout and dance and scream, all at the same time. But finally, when he was, like, still waiting, and his face was getting all concerned, I said 'Yes, please.' And he gave me the most beautiful smile. I'll never forget that smile.' She sighed and leant against me, watching the light glitter on the tanzanite. 'I can't believe it – I'm going to be married! At eighteen! I'm not too young, am I, Dad?' she asked anxiously.

'I got married at seventeen. I think you're pretty safe,' Edward said wryly.

'Yeah, but you were really, like, a hundred and four,' Ness objected.

Edward shrugged. 'When you know, you know. The vampire half of your nature binds itself irrevocably with its mate. And, once you love, you cannot imagine an end to that love...' His breathtaking face glowed as he looked at me, and I felt a lump in my throat. Again, I thought how fortunate I – I, amongst billions of people on the planet – had found my one and only true love with such ease. All it took was walking into a lunchroom, and that was it, as far as I was concerned. I couldn't believe that I'd ever been so silly about Jacob Black. I suppressed a snort.

'We should have a little party today. An engagement party – for the grownups,' he teased. He smiled at her indignant expression. 'Champagne for the half-humans, including you, and the witches – Persephone has invited herself to see us today; I told her it wasn't a good time at all, but she said there was something she had to discuss with you urgently – and blood for the vampires.' He smiled at me. 'You'll need to forgo the champagne; Gloria still doesn't know – I take it?'

'No, I haven't told her. I'm not ready, yet.' I frowned. 'It's difficult for me to accept. How will she feel coming into this family, with its werewolf associates and crazed shapeshifters, only to find that there's a witch in our midst? So – no. Not now.'

'That's very wise, Momma.' Ness gave an elderly sigh. 'I wonder if I'll become prim and proper – you know, like, sedate; like you – now?'

'I'm not sedate! I was never sedate!' I said in outrage, and Edard chuckled. 'I'll have you know that I was a bit of a daredevil, only a few short years ago. I rode a motorcycle – jumped off cliffs into the sea –'

'Sounds cold.' Ness continued to admire her ring.

'It was, a bit,' I admitted. 'Not something I'd do again in a hurry - though I doubt I'd nearly drown this time.'

'What happened?' Ness asked curiously, and I shivered at the remembered sensation of the icy waters. My words sunk in, and she gasped. 'You nearly drowned, Momma?' she shrieked.